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The Original Asheville Brewing Company Location Sums Up Asheville’s Quirkiness

Before Asheville earned the title Beer City U.S.A for a few years, Asheville Brewing Company was already singing suds since 1997 — the dark ages of craft beer. Since then, the town is awash in beer — beautiful, delicious beer.

What makes ABC stand out is it’s fun original location on Merrimon Avenue, a quick car ride north from downtown. The O.G. location was kept when the brewing operation moved to the major beer hub a few blocks south of downtown within eyeshot of Burial, Wicked Weed, Green Man and a dozen other titles. Now, the Merrimon Avenue location is a family-friendly pizza place that shows retro and newish movies that have left theaters and are not yet on disc or on-demand streaming. For $3, the kids can see the Neverending Story or The Lego Batman Movie while eating pizza while the parents are drinking some the state’s most beloved craft beers.

For me, I was digging the off-beat designs where every inch is filled with something retro or kitchy. The Star Wars booths were especially choice.

As for the beer, they was plenty to choose from and to take home. Since I was already exhausted from driving 10-11 hours, I limited myself to these and took a mix six-pack home.